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Thanatos vol. 4 2/2015: Images of Afterlife

How has afterlife – the life and existence of souls and minds (or bodies) after death – been imagined in different historical, social, political and cultural contexts and how is it imagined today? What would human life look like if it were not about images of this world and the otherworld? Could such a life sustain people, their societies and cultures in an appropriate way? These are questions, which preoccupy the contributors to this special issue. The goal of this volume is to gather a large scale of discussions to highlight how the questions may be taken seriously. Also, the aim is to show how the questions are meaningful for the scholars working in these areas or for those who are interested in the study of death more generally.

The papers of this volume originate from the conference “Images of Afterlife”, organized by the research project Mind and the Other which is funded by the Academy of Finland’s Research Program Human Mind, 266573. The conference was held on 22–24 October, 2014 at the University of Turku.